Hot Docs 2012 - "Despite The Gods"

"They break for tea!"

The incredulous tone in Jennifer Lynch's voice when she says the above is one of the many clues that she really wasn't prepared for India. Not as a tourist and certainly not as a film director. When she accepted an offer to take the helm of the Indian production of "Hisss" (basic plot - snake turns into woman and then turns back into snake), not only did she not expect those frequent breaks on set, the very rough concept of time held by most, concerns about script sections being sacrilegious and a far-reaching lighting technicians' strike, but she certainly didn't think the entire control and final edit of the picture would be wrested from her. Penny Vozniak's "Despite The Gods" started as a simple behind the scenes EPK, but as Lynch's own fortunes began to fall, the story behind the film (and the footage Vozniak was capturing) became far more interesting.

Lynch had intentions of creating an examination of sensual female beauty. Her producers had a different concept in mind - pure exploitation. There's no doubt the concept lends itself to the latter, but Lynch's approach to several scenes, some careful shot-making and an emphasis on practical effects makes you believe she could actually pull off the former. She has a few obstacles to overcome though - not the least being her unfamiliarity with the customs and ways of doing business in India. Fortunately, she has a pretty great crew as evidenced by her assistant directors, actors and other various people (my favourite being the caterer who helps out with sound effects). Complicating things further is Lynch's own teenage daughter Sydney who happens to be spending the summer out of school on location with her Mom. She's actually quite intelligent and self-sufficient (several times during the film you actually wonder if she is possibly the most mature person in the room), but she's obviously a distraction for Lynch at times. Strangely, she's even more of a distraction for the producer.

As fascinating and entertaining as the behind the scenes issues are with culture, people and equipment, the biggest issue of all is nothing new - money. The producer warns Lynch early on that you can't make a $3 million picture look like a $500 million picture and at that moment you are certainly on his side. The investors only have so much capital to put up and agreements were made, so he comes across as a voice of reason. As the production wears on, his logic and reason start to dissolve as he tells her he can wrap some remaining scenes for her in a single day, starts trying to yell "Cut!" during filming (insisting that what they captured was good enough) and expresses his annoyance with Sidney to her Mom (which of course upsets the one person he needs to stay focused - his director).

Vozniak gets deeply personal footage of Lynch talking about the shoot, her Dad's own catastrophic experience with "Dune" and her life/career. It provides additional insight into her own process, her drive to be an artist and a whole mess of insecurities. Her honesty is actually quite endearing which is why it was awfully sad to hear her tell the viewing audience after the premiere that she counts the loss of the film "as the greatest loss I've ever had". The only version of her director's cut was destroyed by the producers and the film (with additional crappy CGI added) was turned into a run-of-the-mill B-movie. Despite everything, Lynch continues to make films - a little bit closer to home for the moment though.

Hot Docs 2012 - "Aida: A Natural Born Artist"

It's hard to say if Aida Makoto will ever truly let himself be happy. As an artist, he'll always be restless (as most really creative people are) and never completely satisfied with all his work, but he can't seem to be content with life. "Life is miserable if you can’t be an artist", he says, not quite convincing us that it's much different if you are one. Aida says he has ADHD and you tend to believe him when he takes one of his countless smoke breaks and continues to have a hard time focusing on the details of his paintings. Strange when you consider just how very detailed they are, but then you remember how long he's been working on them and that he may simply never finish them. His large painting of about 30 schoolgirls dressed in blue by a waterfall looks complete down to the last little leaf, but it's been in the works for 3-4 years. It's been shown at numerous art shows, but it's never quite finished. In fact, as he is setting it up at a new gallery, he sees it under a different set of lights and starts to completely reconsider some old choices. He even tells the gallery owner that if the painting sells, he wants to make sure that he can still finish it afterwards.

Another work in progress is the depiction of a mountain of businessmen's bodies piled high and rising out of the mist. We see him just beginning the details of each individual body at the beginning of the film while he works in a large warehouse gallery in China. The paintings are too big to really work on full time in Japan, so he's set up shop here over the summer and imported his wife and son as well. The film tracks his progress and as the summer comes and goes, his works are in various stages of not being completed. His family returns home and he stays behind. He returns for New Years festivities and then once again returns to buckle down since the businessman mountain painting is due for a showing. It shows, but it's still not quite finished...

Both paintings are quite remarkable. Not just for their size, but for the bits of detail as well as the entirety of the picture when you step back. His other artwork is quite conceptual and usually focuses on the somewhat perverse. No matter what, though, he continually questions himself and tends towards excessive alcohol consumption - even after what others might consider a successful showing (he tends to downplay things that go well). His wife works as an artist as well and seems to have a much more practical approach towards her work as well as her life. Raising their son has not been easy - he has his own behavioural issues - and it feels like she is still helping raise Aida as well sometimes.

The film loses its way occasionally by focusing on the young boy, even though there looks to be a very interesting story of its own there. The boy has similar issues as Aida does - he feels "different" than other kids, doesn't much care for playing with them and keeps to himself mostly (his parents believe he developed this complex partially from hearing a previous teacher continually putting down his two artist parents in front of him) - but we don't get much development of the storyline. I suppose you could view Aida's son as yet another "work in progress" or perhaps compare the film's tendency to wander away from the paintings to Aida's own inability to stay focused on them, but it doesn't help the viewing experience.

However, if this portrait of artist Aida Makoto isn't overly artful in its own approach to its subject, that's OK. Aida has more than enough of his own art to bring to bear.

Hot Docs 2012 - "We Are Legion: The Story Of The Hacktivists"

The history of the online movement/collective of activist hackers called Anonymous should be a pretty fascinating tale. Whether you approach it from a technological point of view, a social media one, a political one or simply focusing on how geeks have gained power, there's a great story in there. So why did I sour on "We Are Legion: The Story Of The Hacktivists" so quickly? It actually had all of the above and additionally gave some great insight into how many of the internet's major memes get started (via the 4chan site which was the initial launch point of the movement), but annoyance levels began to rise at the outset. The simple reason? The actual hackers interviewed.

I'm actually fairly intrigued by hackers in general and the concept of Anonymous specifically. If I don't agree with all of their tactics, much of my politics does lean in their direction, so it's not a matter of entering the film with any major issues against these people. But apart from a few examples, interview after interview showed me either self-important, entitled or childish views towards their roles within the larger scope of Anonymous. From early juvenile hacking escapades (one hacker chuckles over how fun it was back in the day to get a group of people to invade a SIM-like game for kids and create swastikas made from identical characters) to wide-sweeping generalizations about police and the importance of some of their successes, I didn't find these people to be great examples of activist leaders. It's a damn shame because there's so much more of interest to examine - the technical ins-and-outs of their hacking methods (or at least some of them), trust levels within the wide group, the variety of "targets" that have been considered, etc.

To be fair the film does give an idea of how Anonymous bubbled up from its roots and when it deals with the history of the amorphous group, it's actually entertaining. I do wish the film covered more in depth examples of specific hacking successes (having just read the fascinating account of how the Stuxnet malware was traced, I was looking for more), but I can't fault it on that front. It comes back to the main subjects of the film though - perhaps these were the best candidates that were willing to be interviewed, but when you pretty much dread any return to one of the talking heads, it's hard to establish empathy or engagement.

Hot Docs 2012 - "The Revisionaries"

I left the Hot Docs screening of "The Revisionaries" angry. Not stomping mad yelling obscenities, but stewing over what I had just seen, frustrated over an inability to do anything about it IMMEDIATELY and trying in vain not to be cranky with the friends who exited the theatre with me. This wasn't overly surprising since I went into the film - which covers the Texas State Board of Education's systematic attempt to dismantle their education standards through politics, religion and ignorance - with the expectation of acquiring a certain sense of outrage. It's not that I was looking forward to that, but I felt that I should see if the film covered any angles or viewpoints I hadn't heard before. The attempts to dilute the teaching of evolution in certain regions of the U.S. are a huge bone of contention with me, so I wondered how the film would approach the situation in Texas. The first part of the film covers the period of 2009-2010 when the school board tried to leave a loophole in its curriculum standards to allow a "strengths and weaknesses" arguments clause and therefore let non-scientific "theories" into science classrooms.

The film played it mostly as expected - an inherent bias that matched my own and a slight mocking tone of those who completely misunderstand the scientific method, but with an overall style and approach that was reasonably fair. Apparently most of the revisionists who saw the film were quite happy with it and thought their side came through well. Indeed their true colours and viewpoints do come through - mostly through board member and one-time chairman Don McLevoy who desperately tries to open the door for "intelligent design" to find its way into science classrooms in Texas by forcing debate and votes on how evolution should be taught. Considering McLevoy is a Young Earth Creationist (ie. someone who believes the Earth is less than 10000 years old, Noah's ark really existed, dinosaurs walked with humans, etc.), it's clear that he shouldn't be anywhere near decision-making authority when it comes to science education standards. But that's far from the most surprising thing in the film...First of all, McLevoy comes across as a mostly decent person even though his ideas have no foothold in reality. He's completely deluded himself into thinking he understands how science works (he even claims to be a skeptic by nature), but genuinely believes in the things he's trying to do. In what seems to be honest frustration, he admits that he just doesn't understand his detractors. He's a dangerous person to be in a position of major influence over one of the country's major text book markets (to enter the Texas market, the manufacturers have to meet the Board of Education's guidelines) since he simply doesn't realize his limitations, but I expected a different kind of fanatic.

That's where the second surprise came in - Cynthia Dunbar. Initially she appears to be a well-meaning but incompetent board member who just doesn't understand the concept of a scientific theory. However, the more we hear her speak and the more we learn about her (she teaches at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University School of Law after having graduated from Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law), the more she becomes the centre of the issue and one of the main driving forces towards the wreckage of the future of Texas as an educated state. In short, she's a horrible person. My bias is showing, but when someone's political and religious agendas clearly supercede any thought of serving the people in their region, when she deliberately misinterprets questions and historical fact (she states in her book "One Nation Under God: How The Left is Trying To Erase What Made us Great" that the founding fathers of the United States created "an emphatically Christian government"), when she states that religion founded education, that government should be guided by a "biblical litmus test" and that public education is a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion", I'm not sure how you reach any other conclusion about this person's true morality. It's completely and utterly compromised.

Even worse than the evolution debates in the school board were the ones that followed. After McLeroy loses his bid to retain his chairman's seat, he focuses on what to change in the guidelines for social studies. With Dunbar's stewardship, they pass what seem to be hundreds of amendments to the standards that take great pains to pick apart bits of history they don't like - squashing names and events they would prefer were not a part of history and inserting their own views. It's infuriating. Other board members are disgusted by these amendments, but the discussions are much more generalized this time around and therefore politics rules the day. The result is that most members of the board are convinced to allow all the changes through. Though the film edits many of the requested changes to specific soundbites that will enrage audiences (or at least should enrage them) and uses background music that brings to mind a circus, it is clear that minorities, women and non-Christians don't really come out on the winning side of the revisionists' version of history. The chalkboard titles of the movie become more than just a reference to the classroom - they indicate that apparently history is just as easily erasable.

As dire as all this is, the film isn't without humour. Several great moments are provided by my new hero Eugenie Scott (Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education). She's a marvelous speaker, clear-headed and not prone to get sidetracked by the ridiculous. In short, she is a shining ray of hope for logic and reason. Unfortunately, anthropologist Ron Wetherington is less successful in helping out the evolution side - he's obviously brilliant, but allows himself to get caught in the debates. While he explains different technical aspects of the mechanics of evolution, the board members grow bleary-eyed and confused. I applaud his willingness to fight for the cause, but it's frustrating to see his arguments complicate matters and even work against him. McLeroy also adds some humour, though most of it is at his expense (his Sunday school trip to a field with his pupils to show them that there would be plenty of room to house all the species on an ark is wonderfully surreal). And then there's Cynthia Dunbar. There's nothing funny about Cynthia Dunbar. Director Scott Thurman praised the Toronto crowd and thanked them for laughing during the movie. He commented that he hasn't heard as much laughter in his U.S. screenings and postulated that it may be due to the fact that we didn't have to worry about it up here in Canada. That's where Thurman and I disagree - everyone should be worried and a bit angry about the kind of aggressive attacks on science and historical fact shown in his film. Hopefully that anger can then be turned into something constructive.

Hot Docs 2012 - "Sexy Baby"

I wasn't very far into "Sexy Baby" when I thought it might be an excellent choice for my son to watch with me. He's only a year younger than 12 year-old Winnifred (the first of the three main subjects we meet in the film) and she was being very sharp in her thoughts about how she has been exposed to sex via media, friends and our overall culture. She's smart as a whip, but even though she has this perspective she still apes some of the styles and attitudes. And she totally needs some training on how NOT to use social media. It all seemed like perfect fodder for good conversation with The Boy as he winds down his last year of elementary school and preps for the trials and tribulations of middle school.

As the other two storylines wove into the mix, thoughts of those father/son discussions quickly dissipated ("Nope, he won't be seeing this anytime soon..."). To be clear - that's not a reflection of the film's quality. The addition of 22 year-old Laura's story regarding her upcoming cosmetic surgery on her vagina (ie. labiaplasty) and 30-ish Nichole's discussion of her career in stripping and porn (and her subsequent business ventures in those realms) provide further viewpoints and expand on a variety of points about the pervasiveness of messages about sex in society. As you might expect, though, these stories raised topics and contained footage far beyond what a pre-teen should be processing - even Winnifred. What we hear from both of them is that the very adult industry of porn has - in particular with the growth of the internet - become a strong influence on a wide variety of people. As Nichole states "Porn is for adults. It's not made for teenagers."

That may be a pretty obvious statement, but considering the number of clips the film shows of young men and teenage boys talking, it's even more obvious that a combination of various media and porn have altered male notions of what to expect from sex. And as Laura tells it, many of her guy friends in their early 20s already have very specific expectations (through watching years of porn) about what a woman wants during sex - even down to exactly what a woman's vagina should look like. Jokes they've made and comments she's received from former boyfriends have made her feel insecure about the overdevelopment of her labia. I'll say that again - she has low self-esteem due to how her vagina looks. You might shake your head at that or even simply suggest that she hang out with a better crop of young men, but the story's points are very salient: our ideas about sex tend to get formed before we even engage in it.

Laura's story fades to the background a bit (we probably know more about her cosmetic surgeon by the end than we do about her) but that feels somewhat appropriate considering how she feels about herself. The main focus of the film is Winnifred's burgeoning sexuality as she crests past her 14th birthday by the end of the film. The more we hear her talk (and, if you listen to her parents, the more time she spends with a bad influence friend), the more her grounded views on sex don't quite match her actions. She gets banned from Facebook by her parents 7 times for posting inappropriate pictures, learns the "come hither" look (it's actually kind of disturbing to see her younger sisters imitate her as well as their favourite music video stars) and pushes her boundaries. Nothing extraordinary for a teenager, but given the context of the film and the plain talk that Nichole chimes in with occasionally, even if you already have a clear understanding of the role of sex in today's media soaked culture, you'll still walk away a bit unnerved. As Nichole says (she really does have some of the best advice in the film - though she herself is somewhat cornered in a business and a marriage that expect certain things from her), a young person's first encounter with sex should be personal and 1-on-1, not through the internet. You may not be able to show "Sexy Baby" to your child yet, but it sure should drive out some good topics of discussion.

Hot Docs 2012 - "Bones Brigade: An Autobiography"

The full title of Stacy Peralta's latest film is both inaccurate and spot on. Many people had the impression - especially if you know anything about the fact that the director also formed the mid-80s skateboard team that is the subject here - that perhaps Peralta was going to centre the documentary around himself and what he did for the sport. From my perspective though - and this was amplified by Peralta's own comments after Tuesday night's International premiere (complete with a packed house filled with "skater dudes") - the title implies that it is the entire team that is telling the story of their rise through the 80s into role models for a distinct set of kids. Peralta was the guiding force behind the team, a part of the company that backed them (Powell-Peralta) and undoubtedly has the reins of the film, but the story is very much driven by the individual members. Each of the core 6 skaters of Peralta's original team were recruited when they were quite young (10-13 years old) and showed promise. They also showed tendencies to be outcasts with a desperate need to belong. Not long after joining the team (by the time most were 15-16), they had become world class athletes.

Though it is the story of the whole team, Peralta's influence is everywhere. Most of the film happens in the 80s after his own professional riding career was over (with several older clips of Peralta in his prime skating era as seen in his earlier film "Dogtown And Z-Boys"), but he's still in a great deal of the archive footage encouraging, coaching and managing the kids. He gets talking head time as well to discuss not only the team, but his business partnership in Powell-Peralta. And of course, he brings his sense of style to his directing duties by adding many cinematic touches to the look of the movie: the talking heads are rarely framed in consistent ways, on screen titles resemble those from old 80s VCR tapes playing in machines that had lost the ability to properly track the image, the music selection always fits the tone and pace of the story, and the content never lags. Like Dogtown and "Riding Giants" (his surfing movie), you do not have to have a single reference point in the history of events or have any nostalgic reverence for the people involved. The film provides an entertaining, oddly emotional and well laid out story with surprisingly interesting central characters.

The biggest name of the bunch is likely Tony Hawk due to his fame having spread internationally and outside the skateboarding community (movies, video games, commercials - being a world champion 12 years in a row will open a few doors), but you can't help focus on a couple of other Brigade members: Rodney Mullen and Lance Mountain. Each could hold sway over an entire movie's arc with their backgrounds, troubles and rather different outlooks on what skateboarding means. Mullen revolutionized freestyle skateboarding and created absolutely astonishing tricks - using his board like a pogo stick, balancing on its side and sometimes almost forgetting that the damn thing had wheels - and was the first person to go airborne on flat land without touching the board or using a ramp. Even more fascinating is listening to the stories of his controlling (though apparently well-meaning) father, his battles with the continued pressure to win competitions and his drive to master every aspect of his skating. Mountain, on the other hand, was never going to be a master of the sport. Peralta tagged him early on to be a successor as manager of the team, but until that point he always felt like he didn't quite belong in the rarefied air of his teammates. Though he was the main focus of an early Bones Brigade video release (riding through the streets of L.A. and using various environment obstacles in his moves, he essentially helped popularize street skating), he never felt he could compete. He mentions at one point that when Mike McGill invented the McTwist (an insane 540 degree flip) he thought he was done for and would be pushed out of boarding. When he finally completed the trick himself months later, he was furious with himself for having taken so long to do it.

One might raise an eyebrow at the emotion of these mid-40s men recalling the different aspects of their careers and lives (especially since all 6 have not only become successful within boarding, but in their business careers as well), but in the context of the film and the interview segments it feels quite honest. Their relationship as a team grounded them all - they found a sense of belonging, a purpose and avoided the standard trappings of young people given too much too soon. When the sport suffered a lull in the early to mid-80s, they all seemed to be able to ride it out and helped to gradually build the sport back up to highly popular levels. With the X-Games today (it's hard to imagine those games could have come about without the Bones Brigade), the exposure is much greater than anything Peralta himself might have envisioned back in the 70s. In the end, whether you care a whit about skateboarding and its culture or not, Peralta's films have documented not just the sport and the excitement of seeing the impossible before your eyes, but the stories of some fascinating individuals. Isn't that what the best documentaries do?

Hot Docs 2012 - "Tchoupitoulas"

New Orleans is a city vibrant with colour, steeped in music and chock full of fantasy. The streets of the French Quarter are, on just about any given night, filled with feathered costumes, seductive dancers behind window shades and skeletons rattling about in every corner. I daresay, though, that the entire city might not have as many flights of fancy and dreams as 11-year old William does. After winning 6 Superbowls with the NY Giants, he plans to become a lawyer and then shift into architecture. He doesn't think that seeing Michael Jackson live is terribly realistic at this stage, but still holds out hope that he could be the first person to actually fly. The ladies would really love him for that...

William tells us all about these dreams in exuberant tones like only a young boy can. It's refreshing to see the world through his eyes and listen to him still full of life. It's easy to see why the Ross brothers (Turner and Bill) chose him as the central filter for their own dreamy excursion through Century City's nighttime streets: their latest film "Tchoupitoulas" (following up their remarkable "45365"). William and his two older brothers make the ferry journey over from Tchoupitoulas for an evening of walking through the French Quarter with the expectation to catch the last ferry home at midnight. When things don't go quite to plan, they end up wandering the city for the entire night until the ferry gates reopen in the morning to take them back home. The Ross Brothers are along with them for the adventure and document what they see and how they feel.

Of course, you may want to use the term "document" a bit loosely here - even though that single evening is the foundation for the film, many of the scenes and voiceovers by the three boys are recorded at other times and merged into one "experience" (to quote the directors). However, if you complain about this, you'd be completely missing the point of the film. It's one of the finest documents of a city I've ever seen. As we meet different characters along the way and as we are surrounded by music (very literally encircled by music from every inch of the city), the culture seeps through to us. The pulse of the city is a wicked funk rhythm and its people are right in step. Not simply as "characters", but as people who have been marinating in this gumbo of a metropolis for quite some time. This includes the clown dancing to a side street accordion player, the fire juggler, the strippers on break singing "Iko Iko", the riffing oyster shucker, the sparkling flute player giving a quick lesson to William and the transvestites dancing on the bar (which leads to an amusing teaching moment between William and his older brother).

The three brothers have that rapport which is instantly familiar to anyone with siblings (and shared by the directors if the after screening Q&A was any evidence). Vacillating between squabbling and boisterous chatter, they gawk, explore and wind their way through the quarter from Cafe Du Monde to Louis Armstrong Park and back. Many of the situations and brief stops in clubs (blues, hip-hop, burlesque) are without the boys, but lend themselves to the overall feeling. The lovely cinematography and very full soundscape do the same and this is where the additional planned footage and post-production piecing together add so much to the entirety of this joyous experience. It's obviously not all laughter and happiness, but the film isn't about portraying the politics and problems of the area - that's for another film and another set of filmmakers.

The best sections of the film are with our guides though. When they come upon three young women busking on the street in perfect harmony (I dare you to find a city with better street musicians) playing guitar, violin and saw, William mimes along with his practiced fingers playing what I can only assume would be perfect notes on his invisible recorder. Then there's the deep-into-the-night exploration of an abandoned ferry boat which comes complete with a gorgeous working chandelier, dance floor (where William provides a quick MJ tribute) and possibilities of collapsing floor boards everywhere. It's quite invigorating to join their illicit walk through the crunching glass and dusty rooms. As the Ross brothers stated afterwards: during those moments there were 5 kids on that boat. And finally, the last close-up shots of William's face on the morning after the trek where he sits quietly staring off into the distance looking slightly older and wiser - possibly just thinking about his "girlfriend" or maybe those transvestites, but looking like he's formulating brand new dreams.

Hot Docs 2012 - "¡Vivan las Antipodas!"

Narration is a difficult device to use in filmmaking. The adage has always been to "show" not "tell". That rule is usually given a bit more leeway when it comes to documentary filmmaking, though, due to specific needs to impart information or put across very specific views. This is even more likely when there's not a talking head to be found. However, the makers of "¡Vivan las Antipodas!" decided early on that they would forego all commentary over top of their footage. Instead, they simply do a great deal of showing. Anyone chattering over the gorgeous imagery of 4 different sets of the planet's antipodes (ie. locations on Earth that are on the exact opposite sides of the planet from each other) would've been tuned out anyway. Not only is commentary not required during the languid comparisons of life and environment between the antipodes, but you probably wouldn't even have noticed the narration due to being so enveloped by the scenic beauty and the unique presentation. Director and cinematographer Victor Kossakovsky has not only taken great care in choosing and framing his landscapes (Russia's Lake Baikal is stunning to say the least), but has also taken delight in playing with transitions between scenes and locations - using tricks like rotating cameras upside down and visually rhyming his edits. It provides a joyful sense of connection between locations and, even while pointing out some great disparities, ties the entire planet together.

Before defining in text the term antipode (and listing the eight locations), the film opens with a quote from "Alice In Wonderland":

"I wonder if I should fall right through the Earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think...

...it didn't sound at all the right word."

Initially, it seems that perhaps "anti" is indeed the proper prefix for these opposite locations. The first pair of antipodes are the massive city Shanghai, China and a remote spot in the province of Entre Rios in Argentina. The construction of a makeshift bridge by the two brothers who live next to it (and who collect tolls from those who wish to drive over it) is contrasted with the huge building projects in Shanghai. But as the film continues with its comparisons and contrasts - lambs being sheared in Chile versus running around the hillsides in Russia; a single car crossing that wobbly bridge in Argentina to the streams of traffic in Shanghai - you start seeing a whole lot more commonality. Sometimes it's in the landscapes, but more often within the way people live and relate to each other.

One of the best tricks used by Kossakovsky to imply this is the edited reflection of one location in water to be that of another. My favourite of these is the most subtle - the reflection of a beached whale in New Zealand to a large rock teaming with insect and reptile life in the hills of Spain. The film also sometimes replaces the soundtrack of a location with its opposite and it's not always immediately obvious. The most memorable of these moments happens in Botswana where the children, animals and adults of a community seem to be milling about, playing and dancing to Hawaiian music. It fits wonderfully. That same scene provides another exquisite moment: the setting sun's rays reflecting off the beach in Botswana slowly begin to glow red off the sand and look for all the world like lava is rising through the ground. The edit to encrusted lava on the big island of Hawaii isn't even required (though a later one between the cooled black lava to an elephant's hide is remarkable).

The scenes of wildlife and the truly stunning landscapes will rival any of your favourite PBS nature documentaries and are filled with creative angles, shifting light and textures and patterns that emerge slowly. The long spells we spend in certain locations truly give an appreciation of a variety of lifestyles - the solitude of Chile and Russia; the communities of Hawaii and Botswana and the natural surroundings of New Zealand and Spain. It's pretty amazing to see a single film that embraces that vast diversity of the planet while also showing its many similarities.

Hot Docs 2012

Amidst the usual bevy of clips, images and detailed descriptions, Tuesday's Press Conference for this year's Hot Docs Film Festival (April 26 - May 6) had two other big announcements:

• An experiment to simulcast several movies to different Canadian cinemas at the same time and have a live director Q&A as well.
• Free coffee/espresso for people waiting in rush ticket lines.

OK, that second one may not be quite as impressive (even if it did garner pretty enthusiastic response from the assembled crowd at the Bloor Cinema), but the two items together show why Hot Docs is one of the top film festivals in the world: they go after the big and even risky ideas while always taking into account the attendees and the little details that make an event memorable.

The simulcast events (called "Hot Docs Live") do indeed sound chancy for the organizers, but there's a genuine feeling of excitement from the festival staff that they are bringing the festival to the rest of the country. Those screenings will be announced on March 30th and the broadcast will happen to 50 theatres in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and several other cities. Along with their DocIgnite program (please go support the "How To Build A Time Machine" project at the link - we need to hear the full story...), Docs For Schools and their many other programs, Hot Docs has also now set up their base in the newly renovated Bloor Cinema. The press conference was my first visit there and it was suitably impressive - it's smaller inside the theatre, but cozy, comfortable and beautifully put together. Can't wait to see a film projected there.

As for the actual films during the festival, the opening night selection will be "Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry" about the Chinese activist and artist. The film is a first time effort by Alison Klayman and plays twice on the opening night of April 26th. Charlotte Cook, the new director of programming for Hot Docs, calls it a "perfect story of art as a means for change" as Klayman had deep access to follow the artist who, over the last few years, has bridged from being an artistic consultant for the Beijing National Stadium (for the 2008 Olympics) to being arrested for two months by Chinese authorities.

In total, the fest will be providing over 400 screenings of 189 films (chosen from 2085 submissions!) from 51 countries. There's a small drop in the total number of individual films being shown, but an uptick in how many will receive three showings. I've barely skimmed the surface of the extensive list, but a few standouts already:

• The Beaches Of Agnes - Previously reviewed here after seeing it at TIFF in 2008, I'm thrilled Hot Docs is giving this another chance to be seen on the big screen. The wonderful Agnes Varda takes a look back at her own life and career in art (mixing in film, painting and the kitchen sink) in this incredibly charming work. I'm biased because I love the films of her and her late husband Jacques Demy, but I'd find it hard to believe anyone could resist the fantastic creativity on display here. Part of The Documentary Plays Itself program (including other documentaries about films and their filmmakers).
  
• Beware Of Mr. Baker - To say that Ginger Baker is a might ornery is like saying he's a pretty decent drummer - a huge understatement. Great reviews came out of Sundance for this and it's pretty much my most anticipated since I love him not only as a rock drummer par excellence, but also due to his interest in African rhythms, his work with Bill Laswell and a variety of other projects.
  
• Bones Brigade: An Autobiography - As far as I'm concerned, Stacy Peralta can continue to document every little piece of minutia regarding the southern California skateboarding and surfing history for his whole career. Both "Dogtown And Z-Boys" and "Riding Giants" were fantastic (in story, execution and style), so I have high hopes for this closer look at the skateboarding team he created which helped launch the massive popularity of the sport.
  

• Charles Bradley: Soul Of America - You like soul music? Then you're gonna love Charles Bradley. At 62 years old, he's just now breaking through in the music business after building a wealth of hard won experience. Likely a crowd pleasing doc of the best kind.
  
• Detropia - Hurt more than most urban centres by the economic issues of the past few years, Detroit has essentially crumbled and is struggling to keep itself afloat as a vibrant city. "Detropia" takes a look at the current state of affairs through the eyes of people who have lived through the bad yet still haven't abandoned their city.
  

• Gambler - Another of the The Documentary Plays Itself films is 2006's "Gambler" which chronicles the story of current hot director Nicolas Winding Refn's attempt to pull himself out of personal bankruptcy following his second film "Fear X". Part of his solution was to make the sequels to his first film "Pusher": the excellent "Pusher 2" and the bordering-on-insane "Pusher 3" (meant in the best possible sense of the term).
  
• Indie Game: The Movie - Were it not for my son, I would have no idea what the title "Super Meat Boy" referred to...Fortunately his knowledge has filtered through to me, so when I saw it mentioned as one of the angles to be examined in this look at the new independent way of creating video games, I actually became somewhat excited. I'm really hoping I can get The Boy to see this with me.
  

• Los Angeles Plays Itself - Yet another entry in the The Documentary Plays Itself set and another that I've seen before. In this case, though, I haven't seen it on the big screen and would love to get that chance. It's long (about 160 minutes), but flies by in a wonderful series of images and clips from movies set in L.A. with very evocative narration.
  
• The Revisionairies - A documentary bound to make me very angry as it explores the creationist leader of the Texas School Board and his re-election bid. Every hair on my body bristles at how creationists try to cloak their religious agendas in science, but I really should try to better understand the other side of an issue I feel very passionate about.
  

• Shadows Of Liberty - I'm expecting even more anger to surface as I watch a detailed analysis of how the reporting of news through different media channels has slowly lost any semblance of objectivity. Granted, I don't expect this will be the least biased film I watch, but I'm hoping it provides some interesting insights.
  
• Tchoupitoulas - The Ross brothers first film from 2009 entitled "45365" is a remarkable look at the people and area within one specific zip code. This time they tackle New Orleans and that means a can't miss screening for me.